Mess with the blog is cleaned up, maybe not totally but in a large part. I still have to edit lots of older posts, to make them a little more redeable and cleaner but most of the internal blog links should work now. Unfortunately all links published on some forums, other blogs, etc., directing traffic to specific notes, doesn't work anymore. It's a pity but I'm unable to do anything with this situation. Fortunately not a single post has been lost, so if somone is looking for something specific - it is somewhere here, in the archive.So, with most pressing blog matters done, I can publish something new at last. This is last of the painted old metal ghouls, painted with oil paints, oil washes and acrylic basecoat. The only part of this miniature, which was painted with acrylic paints, is a loincloath. Everything else is done with oils and turpentine. This technique has one, but huge - for me anyway - advantage over others. With the exception of preparing miniature, cleaning, basing, basecoating, total time of painting this ghoul was about 45 minutes, maybe full hour counting all details, like nails, eyes, tongue, etc. Of course, one needs to remember that this is really specific model, with large part of it being just skin. This technique won't be so fast on something more detailed. Considering fact, that I still have twelve of such old ghouls to paint, I won't complain though...You will find group photo of last five finished ghouls under photos ot this new, single corpseater.

If one would like to have a nice, lazy day, rule number one is - don't touch anything, especially when everything works more or less fine. Well, apparently I'm not that kind of person - even if this is rather new information for myself. I thought about changing (again) template of my blog for some time, as dynamic blogger views look nice but they are rather limited technically. I was looking for a similar but standard, non-dynamic template. And I finally found nice one. So I did backup of my blog.. and to make long story short... I deleted, fully consciously, all notes, one by one... Stupid me, I didn't even think that imported blogs will have differnt url addresses... Tragedy! All links to notes published on some forums, blogs, on the Internet so far simly doesn't work anymore. Unfortunately I'm unable to do anything with it. I will try to correct my own, internal urls on the blog though in the next few days, especially ones being published on different Pages.

I just hope that current look of the blog is not that bad. Unfortunately not everything works as it should yet, but I will try to make things better in coming days...

Two days ago I was on a local gaming convention in Warsaw, where I found single blister of 15 mm scale historical miniatures produced by Kazrak Miniatures, producer which was totally unfamiliar to me. After short talk with Konrad Sosiński, owner of the Wargamer, who was selling those miniatures, I was happy to know that this is first release of another new Polish wargaming manufacturer. Blister contains four miniatures of historical personalities in 15 mm scale. Julus Caesar, Leonidas, William Wallace (on foot) and Alexander the Great (riding on his Bucephalus). Miniatures are casted in rather soft metal. Miniature of Defender of Scotland comes in two parts (two handed sword is casted as a separate piece), Leonidas is armed with a long spear made from steel wire, his hoplon is casted as a separate part too. Alexander the Great comes with horse and he is armed with another wire spear.

Miniatures are loosely based on popular images of these heroes from movies or statues (Julius Caesar). Details of armours and weapons are really good for 15 mm scale. Figures have nice proportions, they are anatomically correct. Details of hands and feet are clearly visible, as are faces. Personally I think Leonidas looks the best, with nicely done chest muscles, with Alexander the Great being second. I would gladly buy whole DBA Spartan army made from miniatures similar to the king of Spartha. In short - I really like these miniatures, great buy for anyone I think.

Some interesting tidbits: Slitherine Studios announded some more information about their 2014 game set in WH40K universe. Turn based, II war of Armageddon, orks, space marines, Imperial Guards, campaign system with units gaining experience. Can't wait.

Nice blogs and websites:DBA Kane blog - contrary to the name, not only about DBA. Plenty of nice articles (in Polish), nice miniatures; Army Royal - next of the blogs dedicated to the single history period - Henry VIII's invasion of France from 1513. Good info, nice tutorials. Useful for not only gamers interested in this conflict, but for Warhammer Empire players too; Wanted for Wargaming - personal blog of Chris Fitzpatrick, who used to work for Ral Partha and Games Workshop (part of last Dark Eldar releases are sculpted by him, as are Dark Elves too), and now runs his own Crocodile Games company, publisher of Wargods game system. Crowdfunding campaign of Wargods of Olympus will start really soon.

I couldn't paint just Persians any more so yesterday I took one of the old ghouls and painted him really fast, everything took maybe an hour. Painting was little different then usual, as only the main colour - Khemri Brown - was painted with acrylic paints. Everything else was painted with oils. I just took different pigments - purple, red, umbra, yellow - and mixed it directly on the miniature with varying quantities of turpentine. Whole miniature was painted at the same time, just loincloth was little different, with more black being mixed in. Painting with oils is, believe me, really fun. Photos are maybe not the best (certainly not the best, as I'm still tweaking both backgrounds and lights) but real miniature has very smooth blendings, which were made with utmost easy - thanks to mixing colors directly on the painted surfaces. Of course - everything has its price. In this case, easy of painting is bought with longer drying time...

Group photo shows all old edition ghouls models painted so far, with three or four miniatures of other then GW producer, but still having the same feel I think. 26 miniatures, more soon...

It is my turn today to show some of my epic miniatures - epic in scale, of course, not so much in quality. Three of Imperial Fists' dreadnoughts. To speak the truth - one of the worst GW produced models I have ever seen. Curved "straight lines", sunken "flat surfaces", soft "sharp details". There were some leftovers from casting connected to the details smaller then these leftovers...Some other details were miscasted...Real modelling nightmare. I think that my negative feelings are shared by my brother, Mormeg, who is painting the same figures now. But he, being perfectionist, actually resculpts them...

Paradoxically - I rather like finished figures and I'm quite glad with the painting. I think it effect of scale, as all three dreads look rather ok from normal playing distance of few dozen centimeters. And painting itself was fine, as miniatures are big enough for some playing with shadows and lights, pseudo-osl effects, etc.

I like the variety of weapons too, every dreadnought is slightly different.

Contrary to Mormeg's World Eaters, my Imperial Fists army painted so far doesn't look so menacing, but - anyway - there is a shot showing all painted models so far.

New updates on the blog are coming so fast, that I can safely compare their speed to the speed of very old snail. Well, it seems that this situation will last for a little longer, as I truly lack motivation to paint anything... Nevertheless the end of "Persian DBA army" project is nearing its end - just three more elements to paint, cavalry with commander, scythed chariot and chariot with King of Kings, Darius himself. It is not too much and I think I will be able to finish all of them by the end of May. But remember, it is not a promise though;)Painting itself was nearly the same as with previously shown base of noblemen cavalry. The only difference are slightly different horses colors. I'm really suprised how bad the middle one horse looks like on the photo - he has contrasting highlights but not even so harsh how they look on the photo. Well, wonders of digital photography I guess.Warrior on the right was a source of some problems. As I didn't like his original pose, with sword held unrealistically above the head, connected to his headgear, I decided to cut it free and gently bend it to more believeable pose. Everything ended, of course, with yours truly on the knees, looking small broken off piece of arm on the floor. Fortunately I was able to find it, sword was broken off in the wrist. I hope that it won't break away again:)

Second of the Angron's good war dogs, warhound-class titan in colors of World Eaters Legion. Painted virtually alike the one shown week ago, differences are small, just minor details. First is named Ignis, second is Furor - Fire and Rage - cool names, aren't they?:)

Source materials: as we (me and my brother) currently paint Epic, I think it is worth to read a little more about this game - killed by Games Workshop few days ago after slow and long (and probably painfull) years-long hiatus.

Shut up and take my money: more I'm reading about this game, more I like it - Kickstarter of "All quiet on the Martian front" - 15 mm scale, Martian tripods, early tanks - "War of the Worlds" with a twist (photo next to this note is taken from this game Kickstarter webpage); Somalian 15 mm scale pirates produced by Khurasan Miniatures for their Modern Combat range; Battlefront's OH-6 Cayuse in 15 mm scale.

Blogs worth visiting: just one today, blog about one historical period only and - more specifically - about small part of this period. Sounds strange, but it is really nice and useful not only for fans of history but for Warhammer Empire generals too - Painting Landsknechts in all its' glory.

First of the two mandatory cavalry elements for II/7 DBA Later Achaemenid Persians army. As with most Xyston's miniatures, they are simply excellent sculpts, very good for painting. Historically, it was armoured cavalry, consisting of noblemen, using leather armour linothorax or some kind of scale armour. Historians think that this kind of scale armour could be worn under the tunics or with scales sown in between layers of clothes. These riders in the period I'm interested in, during fight with armies of Alexander The Great, were using two cavalry spears made from cornel-wood called palta. Xenophon records that they were much superior to earlier Greek cavalry javelins but Macedonian cavalry was armed with xystons, made from the very same cornel-wood, which - according to Ariann - were superior then paltas. One of these Persian spears was for throwing, second was used in actual close combat. Persians were apparently very skilled at fightning with this spear from the horseback. Both elements of Persian cavalry - the one shown here and next one - has horses without armour. Persians were using bronze horse armour but it was relatively uncommon, probably only for "elite" units. Such heavily armoured horses will be visible in my 3Cav(Gen) element.

As most cavalrymen from this period and place, miniatures are without shields. Historians again are rather sure that cavalry shields were very uncommon and they weren't probably used during actual cavalry fights at all - both in Persian and Green/Macedonian armies.

I do have one small complain though - I really would prefer these miniatures to be equipped with cloaks, which are clearly shown on the famous Alexander mosaic, where he is depicted fightning with Darius III, probably during battle of Issos.

And one short note about painting. As this riders are noblemen, men of high social status, I tried to paint various ornaments on clothes. They aren't maybe particulary visible but I think they tend to break solid colors of tunics and trousers.